HELIX WATER BOARD EXTENDS CALPERS PACT FOR EMPLOYEES

Workers to pay more for pensions; some residents disappointed

LA MESA  Despite an outcry from some ratepayers, Helix Municipal Water District board voted 4-1 Wednesday to extend a contract with the district’s employee association.

Under the new contract, employees will contribute more to the CalPERS pension system for 2013 and 2014. Employees and the district each pay 4 percent now, but the new contract will have employees paying the full 8 percent of pay after July 1, 2014.

People who objected to the contract said the new agreement did not go far enough to control what they considered overly generous pension benefits for the district’s 150 workers.

Kathleen Coates Hedberg voted against the contract. The reasons she gave for saying no to the contract extension were because benefits costs are increasing and she felt the Board should have negotiated other benefit adjustments to address the District's pension and other post-employment benefit unfunded liabilities, the increasing costs of health care benefits, and that the Board should have placed a cap on the Consumer Price Index part of the contract.

“We as a board took the initiative in the interest of controlling costs and working toward an incremental approach of compensation toward employees,” board President DeAna Verbeke said. “There is currently a high amount of anxiety among our employees and the last round of negotiations were unsettling.”

Verbeke said that Helix is on par with other water agencies in San Diego County, and “we want to attract talented employees and remain competitive to keep and attract good employees.”

“It’s sick, it’s sick that all of you folks want to extend this early,” said La Mesa resident David Smyle. “The only thing employees should be anxious about is losing their job. Where do you find this anywhere else? This is crazy.”

Verbeke also said that the average CalPERS retiree receives $28,000 a year and that the average Helix employee logs 24½ years of service.

Several in the crowd of two dozen groaned when Verbeke said that “only three received $100,000 or more” in retirement and that those three averaged 35 years of service.

“If you did this in a private industry with these type of compensations, they would have gone out of business long before now,” said El Cajon resident Gordon Place, a General Dynamics retiree.

Several people told the board that they believe that a cost of living increase for employees pays for the higher pension payments that employees will contribute.

Helix has been under fire from constituents who are upset that the district has raised average customer rates nearly 50 percent since 2007. The district proposes to raise rates an additional 4.7 percent Aug. 15.

The San Diego Taxpayers Association’s June 2012 Report notes that the CalPERS unfunded pension liability for Helix is $15.6 million.

Former Helix general manager Mark Weston was the lone public voice speaking in favor of the changes. Weston, who retired last year, said he wanted to congratulate the district on the contract and was speaking “as a member of the public” and not as a former employee.

“The employees’ contribution was paid for by the district because it was a trade-off for salary (freezes),” he said.